The History of Coles Cranes
Chapter One - THE FOUNDER Henry James Cole's was born on 24 June 1847, in the Parish of St. George's, Hanover Square, London, the second of a family of some ten children born to Lewis and Helen Maria Coles (née Penny). Lewis Coles was a tailor, like his father and brother, and two of his sons, Lewis junior and Edward, followed him into the business. No records can be found relating to Henry Coles' childhood until he left school at the age of 13, to be articled to S.Worssam and Co. (later called A. Ransome and Co.), who were manufacturers of sawmill equipment with premises on the King's Road, Chelsea. He was with them for ten years, the first five in the drawing office, the remainder in tile company's workshops. In 1870 he joined Maudslay, Sons and Field. He spent two years there as a marine engineer, erecting equipment on a Number of fighting ships including HMS Triumph and Swiftsure. Then, in 1872, he joined Appleby Bros, and in doing so made tile move which changed his life. The Appleby family were old established ironworkers, and the business which Coles joined had been started in tile middle of the 19th century by Charles James Appleby and his brother. They were very much the general engineering firm their 1869 catalogue offers an enormous variety of equipment and material but they did much pioneering work with steam. Early machines which they showed in Paris in 1867, and at tile Vienna Exhibition of 1873, were the first permanent way or railway break- down cranes to be available to the rail companies. To a very large extent, Appleby Bros was the organisation which fathered the modern crane industry. Henry Coles became their Assistant Manager in 1875, succeeding Alexander Grafton, who was appointed Appleby's permanent engineer in Egypt, and who later started his own crane making business in London. Other Appleby protégés did the same thing, although only Henry Coles' company remains to this day. Appleby Bros were based at Emerson Street, Southwark, with a smaller workshop in Summer Street. In tile latter part of 1878 it was decided to move to a new factory at East Greenwich, and Henry Coles took the opportunity to take over the Stunner Street workshop to start his own business the following year. Three of his brothers, Frederick, Walter and Ernest, who were also working for Appleby Bros, left to join him in his new vulture. It was a brave step to take. Henry Coles was just 32, with a wife (he had married Amy Elizabeth Burks in 1875) and a two year old son, Henry James junior. However, he was by 110W a very experienced engineer, and, like C. J. Appleby, he was not afraid to try out new ideas. Within a couple of years he was taking out the first of a dozen or so patents which he obtained during the next twenty years. His abilities as an engineer rapidly paid dividends, and the company soon established itself. Coles became a leading light of both tile Institution of Mechanical Engineers and tile Institution of Civil Engineers, giving learned papers to each society. One incident, recounted ill tile proceedings of the institution of Mechanical Engineers, is amusing to note now, although it clearly irritated Coles at the time. The Institution held a competition for rock drills ill 1891 and Coles entered one of his patented type, of which he was obviously quite proud. On tile day of tile test, Coles was away on business and the thrill was operated by a labourer from his factory; the result was that the equipment failed to perform to specification, this fact being recorded in the Institution's proceedings. When Coles heard of this he had the whole adjudicating committee visit his works to see the machine operated by a mining engineer, and insisted that its performance be adequately noted. This was done to everyone's satisfaction in a subsequent issue of the Institution's proceedings, and Coles went on to sell large quantities of his drills. During the late 1880s and early 18905, Henry Coles became involved in local political and charitable work, largely through his association with the Cathedral Church of St. Saviour's, Southwark. He took a leading part in the work of restoring the Cathedral, and he devised a scholarship scheme for the Cathedral's Newcomen School. He also successfully promoted a parliamentary Bill which allowed the trustees of the Borough Market to raise money for improvements to the Market, and he devised a system for re-distributing the unallocated funds of St. Saviour's parish as old-age pensions. Media:Example.ogg